Wichita eagle., 1887-01-12
SCHOOL FOR THIEVES.
AN ENGLISH CONVlCT'S WAY OF
TEACHING BY EXAMPLE.
Showing Them Conclusively that the
Way of the Transgressor is Hard-A
Bacahanded Iiethod-Tears Shed by
Young ReproDates.

An English ex-convict tells this story to
reporter concerning a school for thieves
which be has the reputation of keeping:
~Oh. it isn't q school at all, he replied,
with a laugh, and It IS all nonsense calling
it one. II got the maine of being one long
tiIa,. a-o. and it has stuck TO it ever since. 1t
became known that l used to have lads up
here OF evenings, and | was waited upon
By a police inspector. L have come to warn
YOU SAYS be- that we have information that
YOU keep a school for the instruction of
Young thieves. If it is SO you viii have 70
put . stop TO il or you viii find yourself in
your Old quarters. All right says |,
YOU shall come and hear for yourself what
il Is | teach them There would be lot of
good in that says he; there would be
rather short attendance il it was known that
I was to be present. Besides, if they did
come, you wouldn't be such a fool as TO give
'ein their Urinary lessons I said, says I:
That YOU should hear for yourself, not that
you should be seen, if you wouldn't mind
passing an hour this evening in that back a.
tic; there is only thin partition between it
and this one, and lots OF chinks you can peep
through. You can satisfy yourself and no
body but you and me need be any wiser
\ BACKHASDED WAY
And the inspector agreed TO the plan, and
came and slipped into the back attic at the
time mentioned, and there he staid till the
entertainment was all over and the boys had
gone. And then he came out, and says he:
4 shan't trouble you any further, Jerry It
is rather backhanded way you have got in
getting at them. but it is better than no way
night, and | haven't been interfered with by
the police since. And 50 it is what may be
called a backhanded way" continued Mr..
Duff, and it isn't, pr'aps, q respectable way,
and it might be objected that there IS under
handedness and artfulness i'll it; but, what
odds about that 50 that good comes of it, It
isn't reading and writing that teach them
am far too ignorant a man for that | tell
them stories->tories of my life in the differ
ent prisons and Of the crimes that got NE
there That was the bait that | held out to
them when l first began to put the plan l
had long thought Of in practice. They were
too Young to know anything about me them
selves, but they had. no doubt, heard al
about me from the older hands-and there
are plenty of them living about here-and
they We're proud Of the compliment when
asked them to come up to my room, smoke q
pipe and hear me spln yarn concerning my
life and adventures. And having been in
the crooked way ever since [ was l3 till last
left Portland. when l was 80, you may
guess. and having a good memory, had
plenty of stories to tell
But tie stirring adventures and the
dare devil deeds, which, of course, they
liked TO hear about, was only the sugar the
pill was coated with. What | wanted them
to understand without making too much of
it was that for every sixpenn'orth Of pleas
IRE obtained by crime it always, sooner or
later. meets with a pounds worth Of pun
ishment Il don't do TO press this view or II
too hard on them, or they viii at once think
YOU are cammoning. Tho way is to put it SO
that they find it out for themselves. They
sometimes make their comments to that effect
when I have finished a story | have been tell
inc them We'll, after all, Jerry, you didn't
get much Of a pull You paid pretty deaI
fer what you did get, Jerry To which re-
ply: I never did get the pull, and always
paid dear for what 1 got l had twenty Sly
. years Of it, and eighteen of these were spent
/ in prison. and, after al. here | am, making
footstooIs at two pence ha'renny each. ana
working fourteen hours a day TO earn enough
/ TO buy me a bit of victuals and pay my lodS
inc. and tell you never was half rs happy
/ IN all my life